For the Geek in all of us

Escape

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Good morning, Rebekah! Can you please describe yourself in 140 characters or less.

[Rebekah Turner] In live in sunny Brisbane and have worked in the past as a graphic designer in the corporate world. I now do freelance design work and spend the rest of my time being a child-wrangler and house-witch. I started writing when I was in primary school and wrote fantastic tales of magical horses and snarky dragons. Since then, I’ve progressed from horsey stories to tales of dark fantasy with lashings of romance and a sprinkling of horror. My vices include eating overpriced ice cream and over-analysing trashy 80s action and horror movies.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Can you tell us a little about Chaos Bound?

[Rebekah Turner] When Lora Blackgoat, mercenary and smuggler, is hired to find a missing person, her investigation put her in the crosshairs of not only a violent gang, but a merchant with a taste for blood sport. Reluctantly, Lora turns to the two men in her life for help. Roman, the nephilim warrior, professes to be her soul-mate and turns to her when he feels the darkness of nephilim madness descending. But although Lora is drawn to Roman, it is Seth, ex-lover and reborn hellspawn, who Lora ultimately must ask to protect those she loves. Can she trust Seth to save Roman and her adoptive family, or will this be a fatal mistake?

Happy Birthday, Escape Publishing! Join me in a celebration of Escape Publishing’s first birthday! This publisher is dedicated to bringing talented Australian voices to a global audience. I love the mix of genres available from Escape, and if you haven’t checked them out yet, click on over to their website and take a look around. They also have a blog and are active on Facebook.

To help celebrate, I am giving away a YA ebook bundle!! Check out the details below! I will also be bringing you interviews from a slew of Escape Publishing authors, so you can learn more about the variety of titles available. Be sure to check soon!

Ros Baxter is our special guest today. Ros is visiting the virtual offices to chat about Fish Out of Water, her latest release from Escape Publishing. Fish Out of Water blends mystery, crime fiction, and urban fantasy in one hard to put down story.

My heroine, Rania, is part small-town cop. Part deep-sea mermaid. And she’s got a sinking feeling that she’s about to get wet. For the first time in 13 years. Rania has a lot on her plate: a nicotine addiction that’s a serious liability for a mermaid, a solider-of-fortune ex who’s hooked on her Mom’s brownies, a gorgeous, naked stranger in her shower, and a mysterious dead blonde with a fish tattoo on Main Street.

Oh, and one other thing. She’s scheduled to die on her thirtieth birthday – in three weeks – unless she can ‘change the course of destiny and save the world entire’. But where to start? With her bad boy ex? With the smokin’ hot coldblooded swimmer who seems to know more than he’s giving up? Or with a ten thousand year old prophesy about the End of Days?

If she can just steal a corpse, get a crazy Aegirian priest off her case, work out who the hell’s trying to kill her and stop sleeping with the fishes, Rania might be able to unravel the prophesy, the mystery of the missing choirgirls and the secrets hidden in her Mom’s past.

And maybe even save her own skin while she’s at it.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] How did you come up with the concept and the characters for the story?

[Ros Baxter] I’ve always harboured a secret fascination for mermaids (blame seeing “Splash” at the tender age of ten!), love triangles, and things which are not as they seem. My mermaid Rania has all that in spades – she hasn’t been home to the deep ocean for thirteen years because of a terrifying visit to a clairvoyant; she lives incognito in a small frontier town working as a cop; and she’s torn between land and sea. She’s also torn between two men who represent those worlds – her solider-of-fortune ex and a sexy, wolfish merman with secrets of his own.

Most of all I wanted to create a heroine who was totally different from me. Someone tough and cool. Rania packs heat, dates the wrong men and can beat anyone in an arm wrestle. But she also has an over-developed sense of responsibility. She’s trying desperately to keep everyone around her safe, while the clock’s ticking on her own life.

[Ros Baxter] It’s got to be “I will survive” by Gloria Gaynor. Hey, she’s been told she’s only got three weeks to live!

[Manga Maniac Cafe] Name one thing Rania is never without.

[Ros Baxter] On land, her glock and her beautiful Chevy Corvette Stingray, Ariel. In the sea, her BFF the Princess Lecanora.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things will you never find in Rania’s bedroom?

[Ros Baxter] An Air Supply CD. A girly dress. Fish and chips.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What are your greatest creative influences?

[Ros Baxter] My mother – she taught us all to love words and books.

My kids – they tell the best stories of all.

The wordsmiths who shaped my world as a child and teenager – Enid Blyton, CS Lewis, Nirvana.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What three things do you need in order to write?

[Ros Baxter] Some paper or a keyboard. A place. A few minutes.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] What is the last book that you read that knocked your socks off?

[Ros Baxter] Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

[Manga Maniac Cafe] If you had to pick one book that turned you on to reading, which would it be?

[Ros Baxter] Argh so hard, so many. It would have been something kind of lowbrow, because I remember my Mum being called up to the school for a “please explain” about my home reading list. As I recall, the offending title was “A Passion for Treason”. I was nine.

You can order Fish Out of Water from your favorite bookseller or by clicking the link below.

About the book:

Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum meets Splash in a sexy, smart-talking debut about a mermaid in a desert, a city under water, and the secret that no one is supposed to uncover.

Dirtwater’s straight-talking Deputy Sheriff Rania Aqualina has a lot on her plate: a nicotine addiction that’s a serious liability for a mermaid, a soldier-of-fortune ex who’s hooked on her Mum’s brownies, a gorgeous, naked stranger in her shower, and a mysterious dead blonde with a fish tattoo on Main Street.

Heading home to Aegira for a family wedding, Rania has a sinking feeling that’s got nothing to do with hydroporting seven miles under the sea and everything to do with the crazy situation. Now, if she can just steal a corpse, get a crazy Aegiran priest off her case, work out who the hell’s trying to kill her, and stop sleeping with the fishes, she might be able to unravel the mysteries. And maybe even save her own ass while she’s at it.

Fish out of Water is Stephanie Plum meets Splash, and the first book in a trilogy about Aegira, an underwater kingdom based on the historical Norse legend of Aegir.

About the author:

Ros writes fresh, funny, genre-busting fiction. She digs feisty heroines, good friends, quirky families, heroes to make you sigh and tingle, and a dash of fantasy from time to time.

Ros also runs a successful business consulting to government and the private sector. She teaches professional writing skills and has authored a writing guide, Clarity.

Ros lives in Brisbane’s North with her husband Blair, four small but very opinionated children, a neurotic dog and nine billion germs.